Here's a short message about why I'm standing for the leadership of the New Zealand National Party. I'm really enjoying discussing the future of the party and our plans for 2020 with my colleagues. Thanks to everyone who's sent a message of support.

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Morning all. I have announced on Newstalk ZB & Morning Report I will be standing for the leadership of New Zealand National Party. I am a passionate believer in how successful New Zealand can be if we choose positive forward looking policies. Thanks to all those who have encouraged me.

Rocket Lab's first successful launch into orbit this week represents technology leadership on a world scale by a New Zealand company. And despite its parent company being domiciled in the US for regulatory reasons, Rocket Lab is a very New Zealand company. It has a strong Kiwi culture, from its founder, to many of its shareholders, to its location of operations, to its many crucial suppliers.
Where else could you assert that you could deliver satellites into orbit on the space equivalent of the smell of an oily rag, and then quietly get on with it and achieve it?
The founding mission of Rocket Lab has a clear lineage back to Ernst Rutherford and that famous quote “we haven’t got the money so we’ve got to think.” As a result of Kiwi thinking we now have kevlar coated rockets propelled by 3D printed titanium jet engines heading to orbit in just 8 minutes and 31 seconds.
However even more impressive than Rocket Lab itself is that it is only one of literally hundreds of diverse hi-tech companies that are quietly delivering the future for New Zealand – a small tech-savvy country which is one of the best places in the world in which to think about and create hi-tech products and services.
Whether it’s spacetech, fintech, agritech, edtech, foodtech or anything tech, and whether it’s taking place in Mahia, Wellington, Gisborne, Dunedin or Invercargill - these technology based companies are competing and achieving in their fields in ways that are every bit as exciting as Peter Beck and his team.
The rapid growth of the hi-tech sector over the last nine years really does give New Zealand a clear path forward to new levels of prosperity. However it’s crucially important we recognise and maintain the recipe that has allowed so many of these companies to develop and thrive.
The first and most important part of the recipe is the vision, drive and perseverance of the entrepreneur. One of the most impressive things about Peter Beck is that he has all these attributes in spades.
There are many debates about whether entrepreneurs are born or made, but what is clear is successful ones are rare so it’s important to encourage those that appear, and not put unnecessary obstacles in their way.
Secondly you need an investor environment that encourages innovation and attracts high risk capital. Key factors here include tax rates, the New Zealand Government’s 20% R and D subsidy for hi-tech companies and our willingness to welcome entrepreneurial investors as new citizens to our country.
New Zealand is a remote country and while we have many strengths in areas like quality of life, we are in a constant battle to attract and retain the best and brightest against much larger, better resourced, and more handily located countries.
Thirdly we need to both train more engineers and IT people, and welcome more skilled migrants. Nearly all the fast growing high tech companies I have visited include on their roster a United Nations of skilled migrants alongside clever young Kiwis. When you are growing fast in a small country you can’t expect all your staff to be home grown and we need to ensure that we encourage that talent to come here.
We also need to provide the fast adapting regulatory environment that copes with new industries and new markets. I’ll never forget when Peter Beck dropped into my office and said “we’re nearly there and we need a regulatory system, can you draw one up.” That led to an amazing sprint by a small talented team within MBIE to sign us up to space treaties and create a space agency so Rocket Lab could actually blast off.
Finally we need to provide the infrastructure that makes it all possible. That is why the previous Government strived so hard to provide ubiquitous ultra-fast broadband around New Zealand. We need to finish that job to ensure that these hi-tech start-ups can operate from literally anywhere they like.
It is not a complicated recipe but it does need focus. Often it’s about what Governments don’t do rather than what they do do. Encouraging growth and new opportunities for Kiwis is really about encouraging new investment to occur here in these islands and not discouraging it.
It is now the new Government’s job to maintain and build on the rapid growth in our high-tech sectors. Their challenge is to remember all our companies are small and to work with them not against them. There are many more Rocket Labs out there to celebrate if we play our cards right.
Video credit: Sci News (YouTube)

I have hugely enjoyed working with Bill over 9 years as his associate and then as his Finance Minister, and back further when I helped him reorganise the party. Tremendous service to NZ - sorry to see him go

It has been an honour to speak on behalf of the National Party over the past two days in Waitangi.

After 178 years our nation is the most prosperous we have ever been, however there is more to be done to meet the potential of the treaty partnership and ensure everyone has the opportunity to succeed.

This year's celebrations were peaceful and positive. ... Congratulations to Ngāpuhi and the Waitangi Trust for shifting the Pōwhiri to the Upper Marae at the Treaty grounds.

My reading at the dawn service this morning was a bible passage that inspired the words of William Hobson at the signing of the treaty 178 years ago, signifying the new covenant between Māori and the Crown.

Today I spoke on the first reading of the new Government’s backward-looking employment relations bill. We have one of the highest-performing labour markets in the Western world and we need to retain that to provide more kiwis with job opportunities and higher wages.

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Today I asked Finance Minister Grant Robertson to correct five simple facts he got wrong in recent answers to parliamentary questions. It’s important that the Finance Minister provides correct factual answers in the parliament. The approach he took was revealing. At the time of this post he still hadn’t corrected the record on any of them.

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Rocket Lab's first successful launch into orbit this week represents technology leadership on a world scale by a New Zealand company. And despite its parent company being domiciled in the US for regulatory reasons, Rocket Lab is a very New Zealand company. It has a strong Kiwi culture, from its founder, to many of its shareholders, to its location of operations, to its many crucial suppliers.

Where else could you assert that you could deliver satellites into orbit on the spac...

Learning a second language will help our young people prepare for 21st century living. We need your help to push this Bill forward and ensure every New Zealand child has that option. Please sign this petition to help strengthen the skills of our children and young people.

There's 28 new fiscal risks identified by Treasury in the coalition Government's half-year economic update that haven't been costed. Perhaps they should have just listed one specific fiscal risk, namely "Grant Robertson, Finance Minister."

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The new Labour-led Government is set to rush through tax legislation starting tomorrow to remove $1060 a year from the pay-packets of average Kiwis that they would have received from 1 April next year.

It is deeply ironic that the first significant act of a Government with the stated aspiration of lifting workers’ wages is to reduce what hard-working Kiwis will receive in the hand.

Labour has justified the move by saying they will spend the extra tax on health and education.... In fact they are spending the total amount and more on their flawed tertiary education policy.

Average wage earners will in effect be missing out on $1060 a year so that medical and law students can get one year’s free tertiary education.

It is quite obvious that Labour has been delaying this debate as long as possible and hoping that you and everyone else miss the changes completely in the pre-Christmas rush.

They have now decided to ram the new law through under urgency from tomorrow.

This is an extraordinary approach for a change that is being driven by a party that attracted less than 37 per cent support in the recent election.

Remember that both New Zealand First and the Greens voted in support of the Tax and Family Incomes Package in the Budget just seven months ago. And neither party campaigned to remove the tax changes during the election campaign.

New Zealand First in particular will have a lot of explaining to do to their voter base when they vote to remove $676 a year from Superannuitants and Veterans from 1 April next year.

National will be opposing the changes vigorously over the next couple of days.

This isn’t theoretical student politics. Labour’s tax plans will have a real and significant negative effect on the lives of over a million New Zealanders.